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| Fig. 1: ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ poster (2008) |
Sita Sings the Blues (2008) is a brilliant and surprisingly relatable musical
indie film directed and almost entirely animated by the American cartoonist and
animator, Nina Paley.
The film depicts events of
the Hindu epic poem, The Ramayana, but told primarily from the perspective of Sita,
along with the biographical story of the decline of Paley’s relationship with
her ex-husband, and how she reacted to it; both these stories fit together
extremely well. While Paley depicts her experience, she does not obsess over
the pains of her past, instead the entire film benefits from her sense of
humour, one visible even in the use of camerawork. Key characters include Rama,
Sita and Paley herself.
Sita was
mainly animated within Adobe Flash,
but with some of Paley’s watercolours scanned in and animated within After Effects (Paley, s.d.). The film
uses multiple different animation styles including those naturally inspired by
Hindu art, as well as a more ‘squiggly’ art style when depicting events of
Nina’s life, among others. Other techniques used include rotoscoping of actress
Reena Shah for parts of the Agni Pariksha
(Trial by Fire) sequence (Paley, s.d.).
Jazz and blues recordings of
the late Annette Hanshaw are used as Sita’s voice, and add greatly to the
appeal of the animation. Paley’s three friends Aseem, Bhavana and Manish discuss
the Ramayana entirely unscripted, acting as narrators and appearing as shadow
puppets within the animation (Paley, s.d.); this unscripted nature adds another
level of comedy, appeal and honesty to Sita.
Sita Sings the Blues is online and sits within a Creative Commons
license so can be viewed and distributed freely; it is a film so relatable, fun
and inspiringly animated that the recommendation is that it be watched as soon
as possible.
Bibliography
Paley, Nina (s.d.) Frequently Asked Questions [online] In: sitasingstheblues.com At: http://sitasingstheblues.com/faq.html
(Accessed 06.03.15)
Paley, Nina (s.d.) Sita Sings the Blues – Collaborators [online]
In: sitasingstheblues.com At: http://sitasingstheblues.com/credits.html
(Accessed 06.03.15)
Illustrations List
Fig 1. Paley, Nina (2008) ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ poster [poster]
At: http://sitasingstheblues.com/SitaEPressKit/SitaPosterAgniA2.png (Accessed
06.03.15)
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